CHRISTIAN SCIENCE by J. O. Beard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 28, 1903

“CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.”

By J. O. Beard

III. Bold Assumptions and Gross Perversions.

NOTHING is too daring for this redoubtable author of “Christian Science,” Mrs. Eddy. Whatever may be lacking in facts, there is no lack of positiveness in her statements and boldness in her assumptions. If she were asked the question, she would no doubt say that Christ is far superior to herself; yet the claims she puts forth in her book exalt her far above Christ:—

“Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies; but this power was lost sight of, and must again be spiritually discerned, taught, and demonstrated,” etc.—Page 4.

“Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian healing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to His students; but He left no definite rule for demonstrating His Principle of healing and preventing disease. This remained to be discovered through Christian Science.—Page 41.

That is, Jesus did the work in the same way that she does, and taught His disciples to work in that way, and taught them the generalities. But He did not write out His system, nor teach it fully enough for it to be preserved. So it was lost for want of a “definite rule,” and it was left for her to discover that so-much-needed “definite rule.” And on page 40 she assures us that “Divine Metaphysics [as she calls her philosophy] is now reduced to a system.” This system enables the learner to demonstrate anew the divine Principle upon which Jesus’ healing was based.

She declares, “The Bible has been my only text-book” (pages 4, 20); but we must have her book, because “outside of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth” (page 537), and her reasons are:—

First, because it is the voice of Truth to this age, and contains the whole of Christian Science, or the Science of healing through mind. Second, because it was the first published book containing a statement of Christian Science, gave the first rules for demonstrating this Science, and registered this revealed Truth, uncontaminated with human hypotheses.—Page 453.

There we have it plainly stated, and the whole meaning of it all is, Jesus did not, but I did. With this blasphemous assumption before him, let the reader recall the reproach cast upon the name of the Lord as shown in the previous article, and if a lingering doubt remained as to whether Satan is or is not the instigator of this system, it will certainly be removed.

Altho claiming to believe and teach the Bible, the author does not hesitate to deny a translation, or even the inspiration, of a portion, and to take the most unwarranted liberties. Of one Bible statement she says:—

“This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science.”—Page 537.

“The translators of this record of Scientific creation entertained a false sense of Being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and power.”—Id.

So, of course, they made a wrong translation.

She rejects the second and third chapters of Genesis. Of the account given in Genesis 2, she says:—

“This second account is a picture of error throughout.”—Page 379.

Gen. 2:4, 5, she calls a “myth” (page 523), she strenuously objects to the Bible account of Adam, says the name is the synonym for error (page 522); that he never lost his inheritance and dominion over the earth, because it was never given to him (page 525); that he was not made in the image and likeness of God (page 571); and many other unpleasant things about him. But she ignorantly overlooks the fact that in Gen. 1:26, 27, which she quotes approvingly, the word man is from the Hebrew word Adam, so that it reads, “Let us make Adam in our image.” Verse 26. “So God created Adam in His own image, in the image of God created He him.” Verse 27. And therefore Adam was a part of the creation that God pronounced very good.

In order to make a show of Bible support for her theory, Mrs. Eddy makes the grossest perversions of its words. Referring to Moses’ rod being turned into a serpent, she says:—

“In this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter was shown to be a belief only. . . . The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really but a different phase of mortal belief.”—Pages 216, 217.

Again of Paul’s words:—

Paul writes, “If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is my preaching vain;” that is, if this idea of the supremacy of Spirit, which is the true conception of Being, come not to your thought, you can not be benefited by what I say.”—Page 220.

She thus misquotes Christ’s words concerning Lazarus, “He is not dead, but sleepeth,” and tells us that “He restored Lazarus by the understanding that he had never died, not by an admission that his body had died, and then lived again” (page 241), and further says that, if Jesus had believed in the material existence of Lazarus, He could not have raised him. Of course, she conveniently forgets to quote those other words, “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.” John 11:14. Many other illustrations might be added to these if it were necessary.

The fact that any one having a sound mind can read her book without observing this effort to pervert and destroy the meaning of the Bible, and without seeing the vagaries, self-contradictions, and inconsistencies, in which the book abounds, is a most striking evidence that many in this age have wandered far from God, and have no knowledge of His Word in its simplicity and power; but, like the antediluvians, they are each seeking his self-chosen way.

We will next consider some of the self-contradictions and inconsistencies.

J. O. BEARD.